EXCITABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does excitable mean? 

• EXCITABLE (adjective)
  The adjective EXCITABLE has 2 senses:

1. easily excited

2. capable of responding to stimuli

  Familiarity information: EXCITABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXCITABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Easily excited

Similar:

high-keyed ((of persons) excitable)

quick; warm (easily aroused or excited)

flighty; nervous; skittish; spooky (unpredictably excitable (especially of horses))

Antonym:

unexcitable (not easily excited)

Derivation:

excitability; excitableness (being easily excited)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Capable of responding to stimuli

Synonyms:

excitable; irritable

Similar:

sensitive (responsive to physical stimuli)

Domain category:

physiology (the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the functioning of organisms)

 Context examples 

The team found that when incubated with osteoarthritic synovial fluid, the knee nerves were more excitable.

(Joint lubricating fluid plays key role in osteoarthritic pain, University of Cambridge)

Lidocaine interacts with voltage-gated Na+ channels in the nerve cell membrane and blocks the transient increase in permeability of excitable membranes to Na+.

(Lidocaine Hydrochloride, NCI Thesaurus)

Mr. Soames was a tall, spare man, of a nervous and excitable temperament.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Excitable people like you are the better for narcotics.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Lucy is more excitable than ever, but is otherwise well.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The interaction of actin and myosin mediates muscle cell contraction in response to stimulation of the excitable cell membrane.

(Muscle Cell, NCI Thesaurus)

The voltage-operated channels (VOCs) are found in excitable cells and generate the rapid Ca2+ fluxes that control fast cellular processes.

(Calcium-Mediated Signaling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

Norton was sensitive and excitable, though he never lost his head, while Kreis and Hamilton were like a pair of cold-blooded savages, seeking out tender places to prod and poke.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She's an excitable, nervous person: she construed her dream into an apparition, or something of that sort, no doubt; and has taken a fit with fright.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The frequency of attacks is reduced by depression of nerve transmission in the motor cortex and elevation of the threshold of the CNS to convulsive stimuli, probably due to direct modification of membrane function in excitable cells and/or alteration of chemically mediated neurotransmission.

(Methsuximide, NCI Thesaurus)